Forbes columnist Steven Salzberg and author-investigator Joe Nickell will each be awarded the 2012 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, to be presented by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the CFI Summit in October.

A Gifted Writer and a Book Worth Giving

Evolution: How We
and All Living Things Came to Be.
By Daniel Loxton. Kids Can Press, Toronto, 2010.
ISBN: 978-1554534302. Hardcover, $18.95.

It’s hard
to believe that we still have so many evolution deniers among us. Understanding
evolution is essential to understanding modern biology as well as
a host of other subjects. We need to get to young minds before their
neurons have a chance to congeal into unscientific ideologies. Now we
have just the book to reach them.

Daniel
Loxton is the editor of the “Junior Skeptic” section of Skeptic
magazine, where he makes skepticism and critical thinking accessible
and entertaining to the younger set. He has expanded one of his “Junior
Skeptic” subjects into a superb new book on evolution.

The
illustrations are colorful, informative, and whimsical. Loxton introduces
us to a blue bird that compromises on a tail that is “not too long,
not too short,” some cute “Zooks” that move away and eventually
lose the interest and ability to mate with the others, a boy overrun
with bunnies that have reproduced without anything to limit survival
of the offspring, and some really cool dinosaurs. They’re a joy to
the eye, and the text is a joy to the mind.

Loxton
covers the basics of evolutionary theory; tells the story of Darwin,
the Beagle, and the finches; and answers the
questions people commonly ask:

“But
have we ever actually seen a new species evolve?” Yes, both in the
wild and in the lab.

“Where
are the transitional fossils?” Everywhere.

“Didn’t
they find some human footprints together with dinosaur footprints?”
No, they made a mistake.

“How
could evolution produce something as complicated as my eyes?” Loxton
shows us how complex eyes gradually developed from simple light-sensitive
cells.

Then
the hard questions: “How did life start in the first place?”
Evolution doesn’t explain the origin of life, just how it changed
over time. We don’t know how life got started, but scientists are
working on it.

And
“What about religion?” Loxton handles this neatly by saying
that this is a question science can’t help with. He refers readers
to their “family, friends, and community leaders.” (He avoids mentioning
rabbis, imams, priests, or Flying Spaghetti Monsterologists.)

Loxton
has a wonderful knack for simplifying without condescending and for
challenging young readers to grapple with complicated concepts. The
book is aimed at eight–to thirteen-year-olds, but it could be useful
to even a sophisticated old coot. Some of his examples might come in
handy in your next discussion with an intelligent design believer
or a fence sitter. I loved his illustration of how evolutionary change
is not a totally random process but builds on patterns that were already
there. He describes how hot-rod builders can lift a car, drop it, chop
the roof, and slap on new paint, but they are still stuck with the basic
pattern of a body and four wheels (not two or seventeen).

If
you have children or grandchildren, this book would be a great way to
introduce them to the theory of evolution. If you don’t, you still
might want to buy a copy, read it yourself, and donate it to the local
public or school library.

I
hope Loxton will write many more books like this on a wide variety of
skeptical subjects. He has a gift, and we are fortunate that he is sharing
it with us.

Harriet Hall

Harriet Hall, MD, a retired Air Force physician and flight surgeon, writes and educates about pseudoscientific and so-called alternative
medicine. She is a contributing editor and frequent contributor to the Skeptical Inquirer and contributes to the blog Science-Based Medicine.
She is author of Women Aren’t Supposed to Fly: Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon and coauthor of the 2012 textbook Consumer Health: A Guide to
Intelligent Decisions.

Content copyright CSI or the respective copyright holders. Do not redistribute without obtaining permission. Thanks to the ESO for the image of the Helix Nebula, also NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team for the image of NGC 3808B (ARP 87).